Western Front - 2004 November 12

              ISSUE 16
Volume 131
STAGE PRINCE
Western debuts its new
play, "The Happy Prince."
Accent, Page?
BUSH'S MANDATE
Americans have spoken —
Bush's agenda is their agenda.
Opinions, Page 10
AUSSIE RULES
Australians find U.S. game is
played with different rules.
Sports, Page 9
— — — — — • Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington — The Western Front Friday
Nov. 12, 2004
Over-enrollment rises in Washington state
Editor's note: This is the second
of a four-part series examining
higher education in Washington.
By Michael Murray
The Western Front
Rushing to class for a good seat
is not a typical image of collegiate
life for many Washingtonians.
With the increasing number
of freshman applications and the
increased enrollment at public
universities, though, students may
soon need to arrive to class early to
have a seat at all.
College enrollment in Wash­ington
is projected to rise from
62,000 students in 2004 to 65,200
in 2008, Western's Director of
Admissions Karen Copetas said.
"All the public baccalaureate
schools in Washington are over-enrolled,"
Western's legislative
lobbyist Judy McNickle said.
"Theoretically, the population is
not increasing nearly as much as
the panic is increasing."
The Washington Legislature
sets a target amount of student
enrollment for each school. The
target is 11,242 full-time equivalent
students for Western. But every
school over-enrolls because, if
a school is below the target, the
school could potentially receive
fiscal penalties, McNickle said.
Western has kept overcrowding
to a minimum compared to other
state universities, Copetas said.
Western has been the closest
university to its target amount of
SEE Crowding, PAGE 3
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Cascade Natural Gas employees determine where a possible leak in the gas lines
is by rubbing soap on pipes outside Arntzen Hall Wednesday. University Police and
City Council
approves 2005
tax increase
By Dan Johnson
The Western Front
Bellingham residents will see a raise in prop­erty
tax next year, yet they will pay less than de­termined
in the original budget.
The Bellingham City Council passed an ordi­nance
by a 4-3 vote Wednesday, raising property
taxes 6 percent next year.
The need to increase property taxes followed
"the fejecrion^oi^e^Beliingham Medic One levy
on Nov. 2. Medic One's failure to pass left an ap­proximate
$1 million hole in next year's budget,
Mayor Mark Asmundson said.
"I think the council took a very reasonable
approach, recognizing (that) despite severe cuts
with voters not approving the Medic One levy, it
didn't mean that citizens didn't still want EMS
services," Asmundson said.
The Medic One levy would have raised prop­erty
taxes 3 percent and helped pay for the emer­gency-
medical services.
The $659,220 in revenue that the 6 percent
property-tax increase will bring to the city will
go into the general fund, Asmundson said in the
meeting. The general fund can supplement EMS.
The council already agreed during a council
meeting Tuesday to raise property taxes by the
maximum 1 percent allowed in Washington. The
other 5 percent came from a "banked capacity"
the city had saved through the years.
Before Tim Eyman's Initiative 305 in 2001,
SEE Taxes, PAGE 4
Mongolian ambassador tours
library, discusses homeland
By Laura McVicker
The Western Front
Wilson Library has more than
2,000 books on Mongolia, and
the Mongolian ambassador's visit
Wednesday was intended in part to
explore this expansive collection.
"We have the biggest collection
of books (about Mongolia) outside
the Library of Congress in the
United States," Western sophomore
Luke Distelhorst said.
Ravdan Bold, the Mongolian
ambassador to the United States,
gave a brief overview of Mongolia's
current issues to faculty members
and students in a lecture, "The Place
of Mongolia in Northeast Asia:
Challenges and Opportunities."
Bold toured Western's collection
of Mongolian literature beforehand
with university librarian Bela
Foltin and Distelhorst, the only
Mongolian studies major at
Western this year.
"It was really good to have
someone from Mongolia represent
what this collection is," he said.
In his lecture, Bold gave a
rundown of Mongolia's general
information, such as statistics
on the population, economy and
environment. Mongolia is situated
between China and Russia with a
population of approximately 2.5
million, Bold said.
Henry . Schwarz, Western
professor emeritus of the Center for
East Asian Studies and president
of the Mongolian Society for
America, headquartered at Indiana
University, arranged Bold's visit;
SEE Mongolia, PAGE 4
Laura McVicker/The Western Front
Western sophomore Luke Distelhorst (left) and Ravdan Bold,
Mongolian ambassador to the United States, browse Wilson
Library's collection of Mongolian literature.
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